


Protecting Each Other

by CeruleanShockwave



Series: a song of ice and fire [12]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gratsu - Freeform, M/M, Natray - Freeform, the OC appears briefly, the existence of that OFC of color tag makes me so happy damnnn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 04:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19804885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeruleanShockwave/pseuds/CeruleanShockwave
Summary: Because they have an unspoken deal, and that deal can stick to being unspoken; because meaningless strings of letters will never cut it between Gray and Natsu.Because this is how it is - and neither of them would have it any other way.





	Protecting Each Other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JaciSerigala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaciSerigala/gifts).



Natsu and the woman rage across the barren earth, trading powerful, blazing punches and delicate, deceptive strikes that keep cutting too close. He’s powerful, but his fists are no match for a swordswoman of her calibre. He spits and hisses flame, trying to keep her at bay, but her steps are too quick for his single-minded, imprecise attacks. Her blue hair’s half-burned off, hanging in a short, ragged, soot-edged bobcut around her ears, but she barely blinks at the sudden loss of weight from her head, pivoting expertly around Natsu’s stunned form.

And then the sword is slicing down towards Natsu’s chest before he can breathe, but he’s not even afraid because he _knows_ \- 

Ice stops the swing that surely would have killed him, strong and firm and hard and unyielding, a solid block that weighs the swordswoman down, and she cries out at the sudden cold, clutching her shoulder as veins of blue creep up her dark skin. Natsu doesn’t waste a second, going in for a full-blown punch to the head to knock her out while Gray stabilizes his magic to make sure her sword arm is incapacitated. Her head lolls back, brown eyes half-closed, skin glimmering with a sheen of sweat, lips murmuring a prayer even in unconsciousness.

“Do I always have to get you out of this stuff, Flame Brain?” Gray says, and he sounds exasperated, but Natsu knows he’s not. 

So he responds cheerfully, “It was me who knocked her out, not you, Ice Princess,” 

Gray snorts. “Says the guy who was getting his ass beat.”

They don’t mention that he would have been dead by now if Gray hadn’t been there. Gray won’t gloat in it; Natsu won’t thank him - because that’s not how it works between Gray and Natsu.

Because they have an unspoken deal, and that deal can stick to being unspoken.

* * *

Gray stares up at the sky, dark eyes vacant and empty as they always are on this day. His head spins with a whirlpool of memory he’d rather not get sucked into, but he’s got no choice. 

At least today, he should let himself sink into it. Should atone by allowing it to rip him apart all over again, leaving him the same torn, broken mess he becomes this day every year. 

The same mess that he deserves to be, for daring to be happy.

Unwittingly, his shoulders sag, heavy with the weight of the illusory strength he’s too tired to project today. His head falls forward onto his knees, and a pit opens up in his stomach, wide and gaping and empty - a pit that can’t be filled even by the bubbling vivacity of Fairy Tail, not today. 

He is dropping, then, dropping into this pit, deeper and deeper, hurtling down the seemingly bottomless hole of despair and guilt and regret which widens every second he’s in it. A voice screams at him to _stop,_ to pull himself out before it is too late, but he simply can’t _try_ anymore. 

Gray is a lost boy, adrift, floating, and there is nothing that can save him now.

But then there is a warm and sharp blast to his bare back, shocking him back into the present, and his body retaliates with a hastily-made lance, though his mind is still reeling from the sudden shock.

“Come on, Ice Princess,” taunts Natsu, smirking confidently, but his eyes are full of understanding. “Today ain’t no day to be moping around like some emo loser.”

“Emo loser, huh?” Gray returns challengingly, a spark lighting in his dull-edged, rusty blade of a heart. “I’ll show you what this emo loser can do!”

Natsu attacks first, and Gray sidesteps most of his too-direct punches and kicks, trying to get his rhythm down. But he soon starts taking hits and giving them in equal measure, tired of evading the fight like a prissy princess.

Natsu’s fists speak better than his words - always have. 

With a punch to the gut, he says, _It’s not your fault._

With a kick to the head, he tells Gray, _Never has been._

With a spell aimed at his face, he shouts, _So shut up and let me help you!_

And as they launch themselves at each other, sharp hisses of steam rising as white-hot fire and hell-cold ice clash, Gray manages to forget, just a little. And he manages to forgive himself, just a little.

The words stuck in his throat don’t come out. 

_Thank you, Natsu._

Not today, not now… maybe not ever.

Because he doesn’t need to say them; doesn’t need to state in words the extent of their bond. Meaningless strings of letters cannot describe Gray and Natsu, and will never be able to.

Because this is how it is - Gray will protect Natsu from others, and Natsu will protect Gray from himself.

Because this is how it is - and neither of them will have it any other way.


End file.
